Switching to DSLR for Bird Photography - Advice appreciated (1 Viewer)

lowcountrybird,

I know I will get some jeers for this, have you considered a reflex lens?
500mm is very light, compact, cheap (make sure you get a "decent" lens) and it will still be stabilized. :t:

I have had pretty darn good results with my 500 and 1000mm examples.

Just something to consider.

Ray

No Problems

I have a K100D which Pentax describe as Penta Mirror. ( I don't think there is any difference between this and Penta Prism) and use a 500mm mirror lens which is set at f8. You always need a reasonable amount of light, not just for the viewfinder, but also to shoot at a reasonable ISO level 800 or below. Higher and the noise levels do start to climb.

Peter_Perfect said:

( I don't think there is any difference between this and Penta Prism)

Click to expand...

A prism is a far more efficient way of reflecting the light through the viewfinder. It's just much more expensive. Believe me, you get a much brighter image in your viewfinder.

On the subject of mirror lenses, they're great in good, bright light but lousy at any other time. They also have a cripplingly low depth of field and are consequently very hard to get a sharp image with. They also tend to bias colour temperature to the cold end and have poor contrast.

If used well they can produce stunning long-range candid pictures or long-range sport action shots, but they're not a magic bullet.

By the way, I've been using one for years and will continue to do so, so I'm not biased against them, but I'm finding it quite limited for wildlife photography and have only achieved a few decent pics with it. Let's just say I've explored their limitations.

Peter_Perfect said:

I have a K100D which Pentax describe as Penta Mirror. ( I don't think there is any difference between this and Penta Prism) and use a 500mm mirror lens which is set at f8. You always need a reasonable amount of light, not just for the viewfinder, but also to shoot at a reasonable ISO level 800 or below. Higher and the noise levels do start to climb.

Click to expand...

I shoot my 500MM mirror at ISO200 (K100D Super and good sunlight of course) using shutter speeds of + 1/300th of a second.

Low light conditions would be a different story. :-C

Ray

On the subject of long lenses, I just acquired (via birthday pressies) a Sigma Bigma 50-500 zoom so I guess my mirror lens might just be entering retirement except for a walkabout lens in excellent light.